Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Been a bit slow in updating last week's Lent journey. The Discipline of engagement that I was trying to encounter was:

Holiness: The Virtuous Life - By God's grace, I will strive mightily against sin and will do deeds of love and mercy.Questions of Examen:What temptations have you faced since our last meeting? How did you respond? Which spiritual disciplines has God used to lead you further into holiness of heart and life?

Once again it proved to resonate very strongly with the Discipline of Abstinence - controlling my food intake - with the resistance of temptation regarding food being a very significant dynamic this week. So, I tried to focus a little on the pathology of resisting temptation. It was very interesting:

Surprisingly, I found it easier to resist food than I did to resist other temptations. As I thought about this I realised it was because deep down i do not really believe that these other things are harmful to me or others. Now I do think that they are, but at the behavioural level, I am still inclined to trade the benefit (cos all sin has an apparent benefit) for the cost.

This leads me to ponder the process by which I take that belief deeper. No answers yet, but thinking through consequences certainly helps.

Most of these things are minor issues - I didn't give into the temptation of homicide anytime this week for example, but I agree with Jesus when he looks at the heart on these things rather than the act - and so its been valuable to be more aware of these things.

For those of you who are interested, this week's weight loss was 3.4 kg bringing the total to 6.9 kgs (15lbs).